Continuity and Change in Dao Yin: Comparing and Contrasting the Therapeutic Exercises in Yin Shu (The Book of Pulling, c. 2nd Century BCE) and Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun (Treatise on the Origins and Manifestations of Various Diseases, 610 CE)

Abstract

The manuscript Yin Shu (The Book of Pulling), excavated from Zhangjiashan Han Tomb No. 247, is the earliest surviving text on therapeutic exercise known as Dao Yin (lit. guiding and pulling). Discovered in 1983, this Dao Yin text, together with the drawings of 44 figures performing “guiding and pulling” exercises found in the Mawangdui Han Tomb in 1974, are of great significance to the study of the early history of Dao Yin. Prior to these discoveries, researchers into Dao Yin relied mainly on material found in the Dao Zang (the Daoist Canon), compiled in 1145. This led to their conclusion that Dao Yin was essentially Daoist. The development of Dao Yin reached its zenith during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 CE), when it became one of the three medical departments at the imperial medical education institution. As part of the medical reform of the second Sui Emperor, Yang Di, Dao Yin became the treatment of choice, and the employment of a large number of Dao Yin specialists to the Sui court transformed the state medical service. The compilation of Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun (Treatise on the Origins and Manifestations of Various Diseases) under Yang Di’s decree, incorporated an abundance of resources on Dao Yin, enabling physicians to potentially “prescribe” Dao Yin to their patients. Situating both Yin Shu and Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun in their social and historical contexts, this article analyses their editorial treatments, examines their different objectives, styles, and readerships, and compares the various exercises described in the two texts. It emphasizes the fact that over a period of nearly a thousand years, from the late Warring States (475–221 BCE) to the Sui and Tang periods, Dao Yin was an important medical practice, culminating in its institutionalization by the Sui government.